ABSTRACT
Electric vehicles – smooth, silent, easy to drive – range in type from those running purely on electricity from their batteries, at one extreme, through plug-in hybrids, to electric/ internal combustion engines hybrids. Electric bicycles and scooters are ideal for single commuter traffic in urban situations, reducing congestion as well as air pollution. Much work is ongoing to improve battery storage. Two technical developments in batteries are required for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles: charging times must be reduced significantly, and storage capacity increased dramatically. Central to mass take-up of electric vehicles will be the widespread availability of charging points. Ecotricity says the chargers have been used about 300 times in the first year, which it claims represents around one in ten of all electric vehicles on the market during that period. If the local electric grid contains a high proportion of coal-generated power, then there may be no carbon dioxide savings over conventional vehicles.
